1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of toys and amusement devices.
2. BACKGROUND ART
In the prior art, there are several examples of toy balls which will produce light when activated. For example, Deyer, U.S. Pat. No. 3,304,651 discloses a toy ball which is intermittantly illuminated as a result of movement of the ball. Smith, U.S. Pat. No. 3,458,205 discloses an illuminable game ball in which the surface of the ball is illuminated from within, with the illumination being selectively activated by means of a switch. Sinclair, European Pat. No. 07,937-A discloses a puzzle cube having translucent faces and light sources behind each face to cause illumination as the cube is turned about axis normal to the faces. In addition, there has been disclosed in U.S. patent application No. 727,836 entitled Sound Producing Ball, a toy ball which will produce different pitches and tones of sound response to different orientations of the ball by a user.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a toy ball which will produce various lights, depending upon the orientation of the ball by the user.
An additional object of the present invention is to provide a ball which produces lights and tones in a repeatable fashion, depending upon the orientation of the ball by the user.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a ball in which the rate of generation of lights and/or sounds may be set by the user without the use of external switches.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a toy ball in which the volume of sounds produced by the ball may be adjusted by the user without the use of external switches.